Digitalization: Entrusting our story in the hands of a foreign empire
I saw some old Armenian texts for sale today
To the highest bidder online.
Valuable texts, many that I cannot afford,
A library must be closing
Like so many others,
So many books will disappear,
Like manuscripts lost in time,
Words gone forever,
Taken into private collections,
And then what?
Passed on to a generation that may or may not value them.
Words never to be read again,
Expensive words,
Not like these.
Those took time and effort to print,
Each letter set by hand,
Pressed, bound and delivered,
By means only an entire society could provide.
Together.
Not like these, which only hold their electrical value,
Bytes and bits, ones and zeros.
Once every thought meticulously written,
Only those worthy could survive.
Now any thought, worthless thoughts,
spewed into the abyss of the internet.
Until when?
When the system comes down,
And we are long gone,
Our words with us,
Those of old, hard copies, will remain,
Or will they?
If the Library of Alexandria existed today,
There would be no need to burn it down.
Just turn it off.
But our words,
Our thoughts,
Our stories,
Our people,
Are more than a hard drive,
Somewhere in the cloud,
The convenience of modern publishing,
Can just as conveniently disappear.
And with it, so could we.
By Garin Angoghinian
Meghri, Armenia — June 12, 2025
Editor’s Note: On June 11, 2025, a rare collection of Armenian books and manuscripts from the Librairie Orientale Hrant Samuelian—the longest-running Armenian bookstore in the diaspora until its recent closure—was auctioned in Paris. Ahead of the sale, the International Association of Armenian Librarians and Archivists (IAALA) issued an urgent call to preserve the collection and prevent its dispersal. While institutions like Matenadaran attempted to intervene, logistical barriers and auction rules limited their success. As of now, the collection appears to have been sold in separate lots, and its fate remains uncertain.
Garin
Latest posts by Garin (see all)
- Digitalization: Entrusting our story in the hands of a foreign empire - June 17, 2025
- Memories of Marduni in Meghri’s Final Bell - June 7, 2025
- Celebrating Thanksgiving dinner in Syunik - January 14, 2025
